Pinch of Nom: Everyday Light switched on for a third week in the top spot

Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson’s Pinch of Nom: Everyday Light (Bluebird) has maintained its UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a second week running and a third week in total, selling 58,614 copies through Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. This was a 33% jump in volume week on week, albeit against a week that was half-Christmas gift sales, half-New Year New You.

Since its release in mid-December, the second Pinch of Nom cookbook is already approaching 300,000 copies sold. The original million-copy-bestseller jumped 77% in volume week on week to join its sequel in the top four, and the Pinch of Nom Food Planner also boomeranged back into the Top 50.

However, Charlie Mackesy‚Äôs The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse (Ebury) stood firm against a crashing tide of New Year New You titles, holding on to second place with 23,653 copies sold. The Waterstones Book of the Year stormed the charts over Christmas, coming within 5,000 copies of defeating David Walliams for the festive top spot—and could continue to perform strongly in January too, with its soothing mental health angle.

James and Paul Anderson’s Twochubbycubs The Cookbook (Yellow Kite) had a solid first week, claiming third place with 18,210 copies sold. Similarly to Pinch of Nom, Twochubbycubs also started life as a Slimming World-inspired food blog.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s Feel Better in 5 (Penguin Life) bounced up the chart, scoring (pleasingly) fifth place overall and swiping the author’s first ever Paperback Non-Fiction number one. In the past two years, Chatterjee’s guides to reducing stress have sold nearly 190,000 copies.

With Veganuary kicking off, vegetarian cookbooks also rose, with Jamie Oliver‚Äôs Veg (Michael Joseph) and Rukmini Iyer‚Äôs The Green Roasting Tin (Square Peg) climbing up the chart like vines. Henry Firth and Ian Theasby‚Äôs BOSH! Healthy Vegan (HarperCollins) hit 14th place with 8,149 copies sold, and was joined by the authors' début BOSH! in the Top 50.

Paperback fiction also saw a boost, after its December dry spell. Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs (Arrow) held the Mass Market Fiction number one, with Louise Candlish’s Those People (Simon & Schuster) missing out on the top spot by fewer than 1,000 copies.

The first chart of the year always reflects what the UK public was watching over Christmas—Louise May Alcott‚Äôs Little Women (William Collins) claimed the Heatseekers number one, with its Penguin Classics edition just a few places below, and Bram Stoker‚Äôs Dracula (Penguin Classics) entered the top 20. After its adaptation charmed Channel 4 viewers on Christmas Eve, Judith Kerr‚Äôs The Tiger Who Came to Tea (HarperCollins Children's) knocked Craig Smith and Katz Cowley‚Äôs The Dinky Donkey (Scholastic) from the Pre-School top spot.

The year started off with a bang—value recorded its highest first-week-of-the-year number since 2009, hitting £28.7m. Though volume was shallower, at 3.25 million books sold, it was up 4.1% on 2019 and the year's best start in four years.